Experiencing nature seems to have an important impact on food choices

Experiencing nature can significantly influence our food choices, a new study published in Communications Psychology reveals. Researchers found that spending time in natural settings or merely viewing greenery can lead to healthier eating decisions compared to being in urban environments or seeing urban scenes.

The motivation behind this study originated from a personal observation made by co-author Maria Langlois. Langlois participated in a 7,200-kilometer charity bike ride that traversed various natural environments. During this ride, she noticed a trend: she and her teammates consistently chose healthier, unprocessed foods while biking through these natural settings. This pattern intrigued her and sparked the idea that exposure to nature might influence food choices towards healthier options.

Intrigued by this observation, Langlois, who is now an assistant professor of marketing at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, decided to explore this phenomenon further. When she enrolled in INSEAD’s PhD program, she transformed her anecdotal experience into a series of scientific investigations.

Previous research has highlighted various benefits of nature, such as improved psychological well-being and lower obesity rates, but there was limited understanding of how nature impacts specific behaviors like eating. The researchers aimed to fill that gap, conducting a series of five experiments involving different settings and methods to test their hypothesis that exposure to nature leads to healthier food choices.

The first study took place in Paris, where 39 residents were asked to take a 20-minute walk either in a large public park (nature condition) or along city streets (urban condition). Participants were instructed to refrain from eating for two hours before the experiment and were guided by maps to complete their routes. After the walk, they were invited to a snack buffet offering both healthy (fruits and nuts) and unhealthy (cookies and chips) options. The researchers recorded the type and quantity of snacks consumed.

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The second study involved 698 American participants recruited online. Participants were randomly assigned to imagine spending a night in a hotel room with one of three views: a nature scene, an urban scene, or a closed curtain (control condition). They then chose a meal from a room service menu, including main dishes, side dishes, and beverages categorized as healthy or unhealthy.

In the third study, 885 participants were again exposed to nature or urban scenes. This time, the order of tasks was manipulated; participants either rated the healthiness of food options before making their meal choices or after. This allowed researchers to see if healthiness ratings influenced food choices differently in nature versus urban settings.

The fourth study, with 1191 participants, tested the robustness of findings using an incentive-compatible procedure. Participants viewed a nature or urban scene and then chose between a natural healthy snack, a diet light snack, or an indulgent snack. They were informed that they could win their chosen snack, making their choices more reflective of real preferences.

The fifth study aimed to replicate the findings using stimuli from a previous study that had inconclusive results. With 913 participants, this study confirmed that exposure to nature consistently led to healthier food choices.

Across five experiments, participants exposed to nature — whether through physical walks in parks or viewing images of natural scenes — were more likely to select healthier food options compared to those exposed to urban environments or control conditions.

In the first study, participants who walked in a park chose more healthy snacks, such as fruits and nuts, and fewer unhealthy snacks like cookies and chips, compared to those who walked along city streets. This pattern was not due to a difference in the total quantity of food consumed but specifically in the type of food chosen, highlighting the influence of the natural environment on food preferences.

The subsequent studies using online scenarios further supported these findings. Participants who imagined themselves in hotel rooms with views of nature chose healthier meals than those with urban views or closed curtains. These healthier choices persisted even when participants rated the healthiness of foods before making their selections, indicating that the natural environment heightened the importance of health considerations in their decisions.

Interestingly, the fourth study revealed that exposure to nature increased the preference for naturally healthy snacks over diet snacks or indulgent treats, suggesting that nature exposure encourages genuine healthy eating motivations rather than just weight management or indulgence avoidance. The fifth study replicated these effects using previously inconclusive stimuli, confirming that the observed influence of nature on food choices is reliable and not an artifact of specific experimental conditions.

“Our studies suggest that it was not the urban view that led to unhealthy food choices but rather that nature influenced people to eat healthier,” noted Pierre Chandon, one of the study’s co-authors and the L’Oréal Chaired professor of marketing at INSEAD.

The findings have important implications for public health, urban planning, and marketing. Urban planners and policymakers could incorporate more green spaces into cities to promote healthier lifestyles. Employers might consider creating green areas near workplaces to encourage better dietary habits among employees. Schools could integrate nature exposure into their environments to support healthier eating among students.

Marketers of healthy food products could also leverage these insights by using nature imagery in their advertising to appeal to health-conscious consumers. Additionally, parents and caregivers might use these findings to encourage outdoor activities and nature exposure as part of a healthy lifestyle for their families.

But the study has some limitations. For example, the researchers did not examine the long-term effects of nature exposure on dietary habits. Future studies could investigate whether the benefits of nature on food choices are sustained over time. Similarly, the study focused on single consumption occasions, such as a snack or a meal. Longitudinal research could explore how nature exposure influences overall diet quality and eating patterns over extended periods.

“By demonstrating that experiencing nature promotes healthier food choices, our findings reveal a significant benefit provided to human societies by natural ecosystems—and help explain why proximity to nature is associated with good health and well-being,” the researchers concluded.

The study, “Experiencing nature leads to healthier food choices,” was authored by Maria Langlois and Pierre Chandon.